Virtual Read Alouds for Reading Fluency

Purpose: To model and practice fluent reading

Materials: reading passage 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Procedure: 

Reading aloud to students via the phone, Whatsapp, Zoom or any video chat platform is a great way to model reading fluency.

Choose reading material that is of interest to the learners. If you are just going to read to the student, you can pick material at any level. If the student is going to follow along, choose reading material at, or just above their independent reading level.

If the student is going to follow along with you, you’ll need to get the text in front of them. There are several options for doing this:

• Mail it (you know, with a stamp)
• E-mail it (with text either in body of email or as attachment)
• Send it as an attachment via Whatsapp, Zoom, etc.
• Share your screen
• Copy and paste text into chat box
• Link to a text online

Before reading, take some time to preview the material with the student.  Also talk about why you are reading out loud to them: so they can hear an example of fluent reading.

Read the text. Read at a normal rate of speed. You don’t need to overdo it, but read with expression.

After reading, discuss the content briefly.  For extra practice, read it again, have the student read it out loud with you, take turns reading aloud, or have the student read it about to you.